Teenage Dirtbags
by miss-stupid-sunshine
Summary: *I changed the name, it used to be "Begin Again" but I like this better*. Basically, Steve Rogers is knew to SHIELD High School and everything seems to be going his way, but it can't last for long can it? There's a reason Steve's never stayed too long at one school. Can bad boy Tony Stark find out why?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is the first chapter of my High School AU Stony Fic, I'm not too sure about it, so comments would be greatly appreciated. I hope you like it and the next chapter should be out shortly.**

* * *

Steve Rogers was an awkward guy, no other way of putting it. Behind his big and bulky stature, he was still the innocent, withdrawn and quiet boy who sat by himself in the corner of the classroom. However, if you looked at Steve, you'd never of guessed he acted like that. He was gorgeous, with light blue eyes that brightened his face and rose pink lips. And with his delicate blonde hair, he was practically perfect. Actually, scrap the practically.

None the less, he was still painfully shy. So now, sitting in front of Principal Fury, the head of his new school, Steve felt extremely intimidated. Steve had just moved to SHIELD High School, and he was already feeling left out. A child had just come in and called Principal Fury, Director Fury instead. He was already missing inside jokes.

"So, you father was in the military?" Fury asked, eyes on the desk looking through Steve's permanent record.

Steve took a deep breath in. His father was a sensitive subject. "Yes sir. He, uh, actually passed away recently." He looked down at his hands, wringing them in his lap.

"I know that Rogers, I read a letter from your mother. I understand you're now living with your uncle?" Steve nodded firmly. Fury looked rather unusual for a Principal. He had an eye patch for one. Steve would eventually learn there were many stories behind that eye patch - no of which were true, of course. And he always wore a big leather coat to and from school.

"Well, I hope you enjoy it here at SHIELD High. We're like any other school - and from your record, I can see you've been to enough to know what they're like." Fury said, putting his feet up at the desk. He didn't really act like a Principal, and it didn't really seem like his kind of job. Steve thought he must really care about the school to actually still be here, even if he didn't act like it.

A loud and rather sharp knock at the door, made Steve jump and look up. Fury was unfazed. "Come in." He called in a girl around Steve's age.

The first thing you noticed about her, was her hair. It was tied back, in a perfect neat bun, with straight pieces hanging forwards, but the most striking thing about it was it's colour. It was a light ginger, but obviously natural. She was slim and tall, wearing a brown pleated skirt and a black sweater. Everything about her just screamed organised.

"Ah, Miss Potts." Fury beckoned her inside his office. She stepped inside and smiled, you could tell she was nice person. "Miss Potts is here to show you around, to your lessons, your locker, the lunch room, and so on." He looked at his watch and said they should be going now.

* * *

They stepped outside of his office and Miss Potts, as Fury had called her, turned to face him. Her skin was pale and freckles lined her nose. She smiled at him and held out her hand. Steve took it and smiled back at her. It was nice to see a friendly face.

"Hi, call me Pepper. Like he said I'm gonna show you around. I'm only in a few of your classes, but I think by the end of the day you'll know at least one person who's in each class." She hugged a folder to her chest and took out her time table, also producing his.

"Oh, thanks." He took it and started examining it. Today he had English, Art, Gym, Maths and History. Apart from Maths, it seemed an okay first day. "So English then?" He asked smiling.

"Actually no. You've already missed first lesson, so we're in Art. That's one we have together." She pointed to his time table. It was in room 4.25. How could it be only be a quatre of a room.

"What does it mean by 4.25?" He asked, looking at his other classes, all saying similar things.

"Oh. The 4 is the block, block 4 is Art, Design and Technology. And it's in room 25. They all work that way. Maths is block 1, English, 2, Science, 3, Art, 4, Humanities, 5, Languages, 6, and Performing Arts, 7. Gym has a whole other block but we just call that the Gym block." She directed him to different classes on his schedule while she spoke. This school was huge. It would take a lot of getting used to.

"Oh. So, to block 4." He said, putting his time table away. She smiled and started leading the way. So his first day was going okay so far.

* * *

Turns out that the Art block was on the other side of the school, so when they reached it they were well and truly late. Great, Steve thought to himself, everybody's gonna notice if he was late. So much for blending in.

Pepper turned to face him before they enter the art room. "We have Mrs. Bell for art. She's nice, but don't talk over her, or while someone's presenting their work." Pepper warned him then walked a head, into the room. Steve took a big breath. Be brave Rogers, he reminded himself.

Pepper explained to the teacher why they were late, and she welcomed Steve to the class. Pepper guided him towards a table at the back which had a few odd house plants on it, some flowers and a guy was painting using water colours.

"Hi Bruce." She looked around and then sighed. "Where's Tony?" She asked and the guy called Bruce shrugged. He has short dark curly hair, and glasses that kept slipping down his nose.

"Where ever is he? He's probably crept into the labs again." He said calmly. He looked up and noticed Steve. He took of his glasses and started polishing them, it looked like a nervous tick, he seemed kinda on edge. "Are you gonna introduce me?"

They both sat down and the table and Bruce went back to his painting. "Oh, sorry. This is Steve. He just moved here, I'm gonna show him around." She smiled and gestured to Steve.

He held out his hand and said "Nice to meet you." Bruce took his hand slowly, and only shaking it lightly for a second. Pepper got them both sketch pencils and pieces of paper. They were supposed to be painting flowers in detail, but for today he could just sketch them.

After a few minutes of silence, Bruce looked up at Steve. Steve got the feeling he was being studied, judged and analysed. He was pretty sure he didn't like it. Thankfully, the staring let up and Bruce asked why he had moved.

"Uh. My father passed away, so my mother and I moved in with my Uncle." He didn't look up from sketching but he could feel the tension in the air. Pepper stiffened beside him. She was probably worried he was upset about his father, even though he seemed okay. Being honest, while he absolutely devastated about his dying, it had happened and there was nothing Steve could to do about it. He worked with what he was given and that was one of his best traits.

Before Bruce could apologise for bringing it up, a guy with spikey dark hair, and black sun glasses strutted into the classroom. "The fuuuuuuun has arrived!" He sang, taking off his sunglasses and posing. There was a silence among the class and Pepper put her head in her hands.

"Does nobody watch Disney films here? It's from Tarzan? Y'know, the little grey gorilla, that I think is a girl says it." He paused and looked around. People had started ignoring him and going back to what they doing before. Some were laughing silently to themselves, they obviously just didn't want to get in trouble with Mrs. Bell, who was looking at the late student with annoyance. Then Pepper intervened.

"Tony, what did Mr. Louis say about your Science project?" She asked, exaggerating the words, and getting up. Mrs. Bell turned to Tony.

"Mr. Louis... Science project?" He said quietly, then he caught on. "Oh, yeah. He said I might have to make some minor adjustments, but I don't really see the point, I mean the reactor can already power the ... You don't really care do you?" Tony shrugged and went to his seat, while Mrs. Bell just shook her head.

Once they were back at their table, Bruce shifted over so Tony had a space to sit down, as Steve was in his usual spot. Tony hadn't actually seemed to have noticed Steve yet, but Steve was awe of Tony. He was so loud and apparently obnoxious that he wondered why nice people like Pepper and Bruce were even friends with him.

"Tony, why are you so late? Even we got here before you!" Pepper exclaimed in a hush voice. Steve was still looking at Tony, who was oblivious to the fact Steve was even there.

"I got bored, so I decided to stay in the Science Labs a little longer, no big deal - Wait. Why were you late? You're never late." He asked looking utterly confused.

"Jesus Tony. Steve, the new guy? I told you. Sitting right there. Oh, nice of you to notice him. I had to collect him from the office." Pepper put her head back in her hands, selecting to remain quiet.

In that moment, Tony turned to look at Steve. At first he looked confused, then he nodded like he approved. Steve didn't really know how to react. Was Tony actually checking him out? What was he supposed to do? Check him out in return? Instead, he stuck out his hand for Tony to shake. After a second or two he did, and Steve gripped his hand tightly in one of his firm hand shakes. Tony smiled at him.

It wasn't a normal smile. It was cheeky and mischievous. When he smiled his eyes creased and it lit up his face. Steve had to admit, it was pretty cute.

"Hi." Tony said, raising and eyebrow and smirking. "Steve? You probably know me, I'm Tony Stark, high school hottie." He winked at Steve. Unsure how to respond, Steve was pretty sure he had a look of confusion on his own face.

"Don't worry about Tony." Bruce said without looking up. "He does that to everyone." Bruce sighed and continued on with his art work. It was simple, but still good. He'd used the darker water colours like blue and grey. The colours didn't really seem to fit his personality, but Steve barely knew him yet.

"Only the hot ones, actually." Tony corrected, waving his finger and looking back at Steve and smiling his cheeky grin again. Pepper sighed, a small smile on her face with sketching on her paper.

"One of these days you'll remember your girlfriend sitting there when you make a comment like that." She said. It wasn't like she was genuinely sad about it, she said it like it was a joke.

It took a few seconds for the remark to register in Steve's head. "You're going out?" Steve asked, wide eyed.

Tony looked at Steve, raising an eyebrow, giving him the "are you serious?" look. "Just worked that one out, did you?" He said, sarcastically.

"Tony, don't be so harsh." Pepper said frowning. She turned to face Steve. "Yeah, for two years next month. " Her expression changed when she turned to Steve, and she smiled at him. Tony folded his arms and starting sulking.

"Art's stupid." He said, putting his pencil down and peering round at Bruce's work. "See, what use is art, I can draw out blueprint fine, without tone and shading and - Woah." He stopped mid sentence when he saw Steve's work.

Blushing, Steve looked up and covered his work. He didn't think Pepper or Bruce had seen what Tony was talking about. A glance up to Tony, Steve saw his mouth open and staring at his work. Steve shook his head, as if to tell him not to mention it.

Steve loved art, he loved art more than any other hobby he'd ever had. He didn't just like drawing, or painting, or sketching, he appreciated other people's work too. His mother and him would talk for hours, looking round museums at art work.

Tony closed his mouth and didn't say anything. Then the bell rang for next lesson. Pepper said that she wasn't in his gym class, but strangely enough, Ton offered to walk him there. So far they'd walked to the block in silence, Tony with his hands stuffed in his pockets, while Steve was still looking at his timetable. Once they reached the gym block, Tony stopped walking.

"Thanks for showing me." Steve smiled at Tony, but it was a shy gesture.

"No problem." Tony looked around, rocking back and fourth on his heels. He looked up at Steve, who was at least five inches taller. "Your work in art? It was really good. Do you draw a lot?"

Steve nodded. "It's nothing really. I do it to pass the time." He shrugged and fished in his pocket, taking out a folded piece of paper, his work from art. "You can keep it if you like." He held it out to Tony.

"You serious?" Tony said, looking at the paper in Steve's hand. Steve nodded and Tony took the work, and began unfolding it. "Thanks Steve." He smiled. "You best be going, it's through those doors and then left."

"Bye Tony." Steve smiled and walked off. Tony began smiling to himself as he looked at the piece of paper. It wasn't just the plant, it had the table, and the outlines of Pepper, Bruce and Tony himself. It was a good drawing. He folded it again, and began walking to the bleachers. As if he was going to his English lesson.

* * *

Steve's gym class was small. It had around 15 people in it, including a skinny black haired boy looking extremely bored and a red haired girl and a boy with light spikey hair, standing next to each other in the corner. They looked really quite suspicious.

"Right, we're gonna pick teams." The gym teacher said. Steve was surprised to see it was a woman, all of the gym teachers at his previous schools had been men. Miss. Hill looked around the class, then she pointed at the red haired girl. "Natasha, you're team one. Uh, Fred, you can be the other leader." She pointed at a tall, muscular boy with brown hair. He looked like a normal jock.

Natasha waltzed up to the front of the class, putting her hands on her hips and giving the whole class a once over, nodding to herself as if she was already picking her team. Fred picked first.

"Jack."

"Clint." Natasha called up the guy she'd been standing next to, he crossed the room and stood next to her, arms folded.

"Harry."

"Nick."

"Sarah."

"Lucy."

"..." Fred paused, scanning the crowd, with only Steve, and all the scrawny kids left. "Jessie."

"Mr. Muscle in the middle." Natasha said, pointing to Steve, the boy named Clint laughed and Steve blushed. "What's your name?" She asked.

"Steve Rogers." He replied. It all felt very serious, like he should salute or something. He hadn't met many girls who held themselves so confidently. It was a truly attractive feature. Or it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that wasn't really Steve's thing ...

"Rogers, you're in." She said crossing her arms. When he reached the space where they were standing, Clint put out his hand for Steve to shake his hand. Steve took it.

"Hi, I'm Clint Barton, that's Natasha Romanoff." He smiled. Natasha continued to call names, but she turned and gave Steve a mischievous smile. He could see she was already planning out tactics in her head. "Do you play any sports then?" Steve asked Clint.

"I do the usual. I'm on track team, and the baseball team. I'm regional champion at Archery. I'm pretty sure that I'd be National champion, or hell, even International, but I've never really been to keen to prove it. I know I'm the best." He flashed a smile. "What about you?"

"I used to play football at my old schools, and soccer too. I swim too." He smiled and looked around. Only three kids left. "What are we playing?" Steve asked.

Clint's smiled turned devious as he replied "Dodgeball."

"I call Kenny." Fred shouted and and a ginger kid walked over to his side of the room. The only person left was the skinny boy with black hair.

"That means we get Loki." Natasha said, hands on hips. Loki rolled his eyes and made his way over. He looked the least enthusiastic.

"Okay, team talk." Clint said, gesturing to the group.

They began gathering round, and he put his arms around Natasha and Steve's shoulders.

"Wait, I thought Natasha was in charge?" A random boy named Nick said. Steve saw Loki roll his eyes again. He was seemingly unimpressed by all of this.

"Clint and I are partners, what he says goes, just as much as what I say." Natasha's pokerface seemed perfect, but Steve saw Clint reach behind her back for a subtle high five.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, " He shot a glance and Nick. "Be ruthless, aim for the face, head, stomachs, and if you think you can get enough force behind it to take them down, try legs. Ready?" Everyone nodded.

They all stood on two separate sides of the room, with balls lined up in the centre. When Miss Hill blew the whistle, everything took off.

Natasha and Clint both grabbed two balls each, and outted four people in the first 30 seconds. Only four people were left on the other team, and six on their's. It was Steve, Natasha, Clint, Loki, the Nick guy and Lucy. Two people had been kicked off. Natasha and Clint were an amazing duo, moving like lightning, intercepting balls coming from left right or centre. It seemed like the remaining four on the other team were desperate to get Clint and Natasha out, so they were firing every shot they got at them.

Loki was surprisingly quick when it came to dodging the balls, and his aim wasn't too bad either. Steve was just firing at the other side trying to hit them. He'd only been able to get one play so far, as Clint and Natasha were kinda hogging, but it hit Fred in the stomach and nearly knocked him off his feet. He'd felt bad afterwards, but Clint sent him a approving nod before knocking someone else out. They won the game and it was Steve, Natasha, Clint and Loki left on their team. They played two more times, and they won all three matches.

* * *

When they were walking out to the locker rooms, Clint caught up with Steve and they started talking.

"Yeah, you should join some school teams. I know a cool guy on the football team, the Captain, he's awesome. But apparently his parents want him to focus on studying, so he can't be Captain anymore. Hey, maybe you should go up for it?" Clint suggested.

Steve shrugged, he didn't see why not. "That sounds like an alright idea. I wanna be on the soccer team too. Can I do both?"

"I'm pretty sure you could. I'm thinking about trying out for soccer, but I don't think Captain's my style. So, I'll let you have that. Nat's Captain on the girl's soccer team, maybe you ask her about it." Clint opened the door to the locker rooms and began taking his sneakers off. "Hey, could you imagine if you were Captain on soccer and football? That's your nickname now. See you later Cap'." And with that he walked off.

Steve's thoughts raced round his head as got changed. It wasn't even lunch yet and he'd made at least three friends. He wasn't sure it Natasha and Bruce counted as friends yet, but he was pretty sure they would be. He knew Pepper and Clint were his friends. And Tony, he was his friend for sure. He wasn't sure how long they'd stay friends after they knew the truth about him though.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so last chapter went well, so I got this one out early. I hope you enjoy it, and I love reading reviews, they make my day. Also, some ideas at what you'd like to read would be great.**

* * *

Steve made his way to the cafeteria after gym. He realized how hungry he was, after working up and appetite with Clint and Natasha at dodgeball. He looked around the room and saw Clint and Natasha at one table, Pepper and Bruce at another, and Loki sitting by himself.

Clint and Natasha sat in the corner of the room, Clint leaning sideways on his chair. Natasha had her feet up on his lap and they seemed to be arguing about something. Although they were bickering, whenever someone walked past they stopped to glare until that said person walked away. Maybe it would be a better idea to sit with Pepper.

He lined up for his food, then walked over to where they were sitting. Pepper had an organizer out and Bruce was picking at a salad. Pepper, appeared to have no food. "Mind if I sit here?" Steve asked, gesturing to one of the two empty chairs.

"Sure Steve." She said, then let out an exasperated groan. When Bruce and Steve looked up she went a little pink. "Sorry. Fury's got me planning our school's next charity event, and I am stumped for ideas. I was thinking maybe a dinner for the parents? And students if they want to come. All formal, that sort of thing."

Steve's previous schools never did anything like that. Being perfectly honest, it sounded fun, he'd never really had a chance to dress up formally. And his mom would probably love it, and maybe he'd bring his Uncle. "Yeah, Pepper, that sounds like a great idea." He agreed.

"You think?" Pepper's face relaxed a bit, like she had been worrying about this for a while. "It would have to take place around December, seeing all the planning I'd have to do." She stopped speaking, opened a new page in her note book and starting scrawling down plans and ideas.

"There's no use trying to talk to her now." Bruce laughed, looking at his food. "She won't stop until she's got the budget, venue and dress code sorted." He looked up at Steve and smiled. "So how are you enjoying SHIELD then?"

"It's going okay so far." Steve returned his smile and took a sip from his drink. "I met Natasha and Clint in gym." He looked over in their direction, where they were still arguing, though they were smiling now. "I don't get it. Are they going out or something?"

"Clint and Natasha? No." Bruce laughed again. It was light sound, but his smile was genuine. "They've been best friends since 2nd grade. We're all waiting for the day they realize they're in love with each other, but now they remain oblivious." Bruce followed Steve's gaze to the pair sitting in the corner. "They keep to themselves a lot. Well, mostly Natasha does, but Clint stays with her."

They looked perfectly happy. A sudden crash made him jump. Tony had arrived and slammed his tray of food down on the table. He looked mad. "Can you believe it? Miss. Johnson gave me another detention!" He crossed over to Pepper and gave her a kiss on the cheek before beginning to stab at his food. Steve looked down at his food.

"Did you actually go to her lesson?" Bruce asked, sounding tired. Steve was now looking at Pepper, the place where Tony had kissed her. He tried to get the thoughts out of his head, and turned back to his food.

"Well, no." Tony admitted, shrugging his shoulders, not seeming to care. "But English is so boring." He yawned, as if to show how boring it actually was.

Bruce shrugged and went back to his food. Everyone at the table had their heads down, either at their food, or something else. Steve looked up and saw Tony looking at his phone. His dark eyes had a look of concentration on them, his mouth in a line, until the corners flicked up, showing the signature smirk that captivated Steve in the art room. Then suddenly, Tony looked up and caught Steve's eye. Steve automatically turned away, praying his face wouldn't blush like it usually did.

Instead of Tony acting confused, he smiled at Steve, sending creases up to his eyes. "How was gym?" He s smirked again and it Steve's heart skipped a beat.

"Uh, good." He said quickly, and then realized he was probably expecting more of a response then that. "We played dodgeball. Won three times." He smiled, and flicked a look to Clint and Natasha, who were getting up and throwing their rubbish in the trash.

"Oh, you had the dynamic duo on your team." Tony nodded, looking over to them too. "Only girl in this school who hasn't at one point had a crush on me." He winked. Steve's heart was not just skipping beats, it was doing back flips.

Bruce scoffed, and even Pepper gave a hard laugh. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say." Bruce agreed sarcastically. Tony glared at him and Steve couldn't hold back a laugh.

"So gym," Tony said, still glaring at Bruce, trying to change the subject. "How'd that work out for you?" At last, he shifted his gaze to Steve.  
"It went well. Clint convinced me to try out for football and soccer." Steve smiled. He'd found out from the coach that try outs were after school today. Clint said he'd talk to his friend on the team so Steve wouldn't be alone at practice.

"Ooh, you going up for Captain?" Tony said, flicking open his phone, looking at it, then closing it. "You look like a Captain kinda guy."

"That's what Clint said." Steve smiled. "So yeah. I guess I will. It could be fun." He'd only been Captain once before at his old school, and that was for soccer. Football Captain seemed like a pretty big deal.

"Come on' Steve." Pepper said, picking up her stuff and packing it into her bag. "We have Math." Steve groaned and got up. He turned to Bruce and Tony.

"Bye Bruce," He waved, "Bye Tony." He smiled at him, then felt the heat rising to his cheeks so he left with Pepper.

People began slowly leaving the cafeteria until Tony and Bruce were the only people left. They'd been best friends since around 3rd grade. "What do you think of Steve then?" Bruce asked, getting up and walking out, Tony next to him.

"He seems nice enough." Tony shrugged. "He's hot." He smirked and pushed open the doors to the corridor outside.

"Does Pepper know you flirt like this?" Bruce asked. Tony's face dropped a little.

"Yes. You know she does." Tony had his hands in his pockets but he took one out to run it through his hair. "She doesn't mind." He murmured quietly.

"Are you sure about that?" Bruce raised an eyebrow and turned to Tony. Taking a deep breath, Tony looked at Bruce.

"She says she doesn't mind. I don't see why see hasn't broken up with me, I doubt I actually make her happy." Tony sighed. Bruce pushed his glasses up his nose. Tony had noticed he did that whenever he felt he'd made a point. Or when someone was being annoying, but that was usually accompanied with an eye roll.

"Do you wanna break up with her?" Bruce asked the question that had been on Tony's mind for a while. He wasn't sure if he did or not, but being Tony Stark, hi first instinct was to lie.

"Oh God no." Bruce looked at him. He gave him the "Who do you think you're fooling? I'm your best friend" look. "Well, I don't know. Things haven't been the same for a while. I don't want to break up with her, it's Pepper. But I think she might want to break up with me." Tony shrugged again. He couldn't look upset about it, even if he was.

A kid in the year beneath them ran a head of them, muttering about how he couldn't be late again. It was already 10 minutes into the lesson. "I don't suppose I can actually convince you to come to history, can I?" Bruce joked, stopping outside his classroom.

"Nope. History is so last year." Tony smiled back at his friend. Bruce shook his head laughing, and walked into the lesson. If he was annoyed that Tony had made him late, he didn't show it.

* * *

It was the time of year where it was just starting to turn cold, and Tony was beginning to regret just bringing a hoodie. Shivering, he walked down the corridor. Teachers would spot him walking and either try and send him back to class, or maybe they knew Tony well enough to know that wouldn't work. They couldn't complain though, Tony still got As in most subject, apart from the ones he classed as stupid.

The corridor Tony was walking down ended with a glass door that led to an outside court yard. He would have passed it without even looking, if it wasn't for the lonely figure he saw leaning against the wall.

Loki Odinson was outside in the cold weather, but he looked totally comfortable there. He was tall, but incredibly skinny. Loki had the indie look so many guys tried so hard to get, most of them looking up either gay or depressed. It suited Loki though, skinny jeans and dark t-shirt probably made up his wardrobe.

As Tony watched, Loki fished in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and taking a long drag. Tony noticed he had positioned himself exactly so he couldn't be seen through any of the class room windows. Smirking, Tony walked outside and towards the mysterious guy.

"Cutting class Loki? I didn't think Odinson's did that." He folded his arms and leaned against the wall with him. "But, if they didn't have bunkers like us, who would prop up all these walls?" Loki didn't laugh.  
In fact, he looked sort of confused, looking at Tony as if he was crazy. "What do you want?" Wow, Tony thought, this guy cut straight to the point.

"Maybe a smoke?" Tony asked, putting his hands into his pockets, taking one hand out to accept the cigarette Loki had lit for him. They stood in silence for a while, just inhaling the smoke, and letting it out again. Tony didn't smoke regularly, sometimes at parties, or when he was stressed. Pepper had asked him not to get into a habit of it, and because of that, he hadn't.

Loki broke the silence. "Don't tell my brother." He said quietly. He didn't look at Tony. Tony knew about Look's and his brother, Thor's relationship. Thor tried to look out for Loki, and try and make him the best person he could be. It seemed to Tony that Thor's efforts only made Loki want to rebel more. So that's what he did. It didn't mean he wanted Thor to be disappointed though.

"I won't." Tony said sincerely. He put the cigarette to his lips again.

* * *

Steve stood up and shut his locker. It had been a while since he'd worn football padding and it took a second to get used to. He was early, no one else was in the locker room yet. He walked over to the mirror and looked at his reflection.  
The only difference between the uniform at his old school were the colours. Before his old school's colours were black and gold, here they were red, white and blue. He definitely liked these better.

The sound of the locker room door opening and closing again made Steve step away from the mirror. He turned around to see a extremely tall, extremely muscular and extremely handsome guy. Although, he wasn't really Steve's type. The guy turned around and smiled. "Ah, you must be Steven. Clint told me of you." He smiled widely, and held out his hand.

Steve, though a bit confused, took his hand and smiled back. "Yeah, Steve's fine though. Clint didn't happen to mention your name." The guy reminded him of a labrador. Even though he was huge, even bigger than Steve, he looked genuinely kind.  
"I'm Thor Odinson." Steve didn't think his smile could widen, but it did. "I heard you're going for Captain? Good luck my friend, expect you'll lead our team to many victories." He patted Steve on the back. He didn't seem to mind that Steve could possibly be taking over.

"You sure? 'Cause I know you were Captain, are you sure you don't wanna try out again?" Steve asked. Thor shook his head and laughed.

"No, I need to focus on my studies. And I need to keep an eye on my brother, Loki." He sighed and turned to his locker, and starting getting out his gear. Steve's mouth gaped open.  
"Loki's your brother?" He exclaimed. The skinny and darked haired boy, and the guy with the body of a god. They were siblings? Thor nodded and sat down, starting to take off his shoes.

"I despair with him sometimes. He just needs a bit of assistance, and he'll be back on track again soon." It sounded like he was more reassuring himself than Steve. "I'll change and show you to our field. We may have different warm up to you prior school, so I'll teach you our ones. I can tell you'll be a good player."

Steve sat down and waited for Thor to finish changing. He averted his eyes, in hopes that if he didn't watch, he would blush. When he was finished, they made their way to the field and began training, before the rest of the kids trying out turned up. He liked to think he actually had a good chance of getting Captain.

* * *

Though the air was chilly, Steve wasn't cold. He decided to jog home instead of catch the bus, and felt better for it. He wasn't out of breath, though training had tired him out a lot. The coach said he'd post who was on the team on the school notice board next morning. He was certain he'd got on the team, and quite confident with his apply for Captain. So far, this school was going really well for him.

He turned the corner, and it was the street of his new house. He carried running downwards, until he was outside his house. He was about to go in, when he stopped. A little bit down the street, Natasha was locking the door to a house a couple doors down. Her bright scarlet hair was tied back in ponytail, with a couple of pieces hanging down. She wore light blue jeans, a black plain t-shirt, and a navy blue hoodie.

Steve walked out of his drive, and towards where she was. She spotted him and he waved at her, she nodded.  
"Hi." Steve said, stopping next to her, putting his hands in his pockets. "Looks like we're neighbours. Or close enough." He smiled at Natasha. She smiled back, but it didn't linger, and her face returned to semi-emotionless. She looked at her watch.

"I guess so. I'm supposed to be meeting Clint for our pizza night, we go to Mama Rosa's on Thursdays and talk." She took out her phone, looked at something, before sighing. "Don't suppose you wanna come? Clint said something about you trying out for Captain, I'm pretty sure he wants to know how that went. Although, it's obvious you got it."

"How do you know I got it?" He asked, confused. She rolled her eyes like he was completely oblivious.

"Your only competition was Thor Odinson, I know for a fact he didn't want it. Oscar Larken could have got it, but he couldn't try out, because he broke his leg in what he says was a motocross accident, but he actually just fell down a set of stairs. And all the others on the team don't have the experience that you do. Not to mention everything about you screams natural leader." She blew a piece of hair out of her face, and put her hands in her back pockets.  
"How do you know all that?" Steve exclaimed. It seemed there wasn't anything she didn't know. That kinda scared Steve.

"Why does it matter? I have my sources, and I know everything about everyone. I'm not a gossip, I use it in ... other ways." Blackmail? Steve thought, a payment of some kind? She probably hacked the system to find out things about people, but that wouldn't explain everything she knew. "Anyway, are you coming or not?" She asked pointedly.

"Yeah, let me just go shower and change." He nodded towards his house and Natasha smiled. And without a goodbye, she just started walking down the street.

Steve walked through the door to his house, and his mother and Uncle were sitting on the sofa, sipping coffee. His mother had started doing her hair properly again, curling in most mornings, so there were light blonde curls sitting on her shoulder, lining her kind face. She'd started wearing dresses again now. When his dad first died, she'd stay in sweat pants all day. Now it seemed that she was moving on, still grieving, but getting by.

They both looked up when he entered the room, smiling at him. "How was your day, honey?" His mother asked. She turned on the sofa to look at Steve properly. "I got your message about football try outs, did it go well?"

Steve nodded and sat down in an arm chair. "Yeah. I don't wanna jinx it, but I think I might have a good chance of getting Captain." He smiled and his mother smiled too, but it was a slightly sad smile. His dad would have loved to see him Captain.

"Oh, that's excellent, Steve. And what about the people, make any new friends?" His mom hinted, curious. His uncle, not as tall as Steve, nor as muscular, with light brown hair, mouthed the words "Hot girls?" And Steve laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah, quite a few actually. They seem really nice." He got up and looked around. "In fact, I've been asked out to go get pizza with some of them, is that okay?" He asked politely. Some guys might think it was weird that Steve still asked his mom for permission to do things, but it was out of respect. And Steve believed if you give respect, you get respect.

"Oh, that's great. Sure, go ahead. Text me when you're coming home though." She reminded him. Steve agreed and went upstairs to shower, and make sure he got there within the next half an hour. He didn't want to be late.


End file.
